Riding the Range

So what’s going on now?

I met a new doc this week to discuss next steps. We had a lengthy discussion and I came away feeling much better than I did for the preceding week. Not only does he seem confident that the next stage of treatment will yield positive outcomes, the diagnostics that he’ll use to confirm whether or not the new “veiled cancer” has been impacted make sense. Here’s the plan:

I go in for an MRI that looks specifically at my liver. This will be the baseline roadmap to use for the next step. Then, sometime in the next week or so, chemotherapy-infused pellets will be injected into my liver. They will cut down the oxygen and blood flow to the offensive areas, basically “starving” the cancer cells. The chemotherapy drug, Irinotecan, is emitted from the pellets and flows to the cancer cells. Since they aren’t getting clean blood supply, they’ll be duped into thinking that the blood supply with the drug in it is good for them…but we know better. In theory, they’ll drink deeply of this poisonous blood supply and die. (Blunt, I know, and I apologize.) But we have a war going on at this stage and I don’t want them to just wither away.

It takes about ten days for the supply of chemicals to dissipate through the liver. Side effects should be minor. Constant readers of my blog will remember that Irinotecan was one of the drugs in last year’s cocktail, but didn’t give me much trouble.

The plan will be to have this done as soon as schedules permit, definitely before Thanksgiving. I’ll be in the hospital for an afternoon to take the treatment, and then released to go home. With a day of rest following, I should watch my activity for a few days but should be pretty healthy for the entire period the Irinotecan is killing the little buggers. Then, we’ll give my system a month to rest.

We’ll do the same thing in December and January. Then, we take another look inside with the MRI. Assuming all goes according to plan, I’ll begin 2009 with a healthy liver and we go back on the diagnostic schedule every 90 days…likely to replace the CT with MRI for the first few. The CT checks ALL organs, though, and I’ll have to continue to do that.

Thanks, as always, to everyone for the kind thoughts and notes. I’m sorry if this is more medically directed than most, but wanted you to have the full scoop. My mood is better as I write this, and I’m anxious to take the next step(s). Having a plan seems so much more positive than just hoping something shows up like magic. Listening to confident young docs is a great way to build the plan and see a positive outcome.